A nearby radio station (WQUT) is having a really cool contest for the next couple of weeks. It’s called the Rock ‘n Roll Payroll, and they’re giving away $101 an hour. All you have to do is enter and listen for them to call your name during the day, and if you call in within 10 minutes, the cash is yours. Not only that, but if the next person doesn’t call in, you get their money too. And so on until someone else comes in. You know I just had to get in on this.

So I’ve been listening to the radio from 10:00 to 5:00 every day. It’s getting a bit nervewracking listening to all those commercials telling me I need to vote for certain people and I should get a term life insurance quote. But at least they play great music, and the chance of winning that money is nice.

But as much as I want the cash, it’s adversely affecting my work. I mean, as you probably know if you’ve been reading this blog regularly, I have a very limited amount of concentration to go around. I’ll probably end up giving up… and then the next hour they will call my name. I hope it doesn’t go down like that!

I have had it with this computer. It’s driving me nuts. I’ve shown great restraint in not putting my fist through the screen today.

MS Word finally started mysteriously working fairly well again. That’s great, but what gives??? Why would it just crap out and then suddenly decide to start functioning as it should out of the blue? Because my computer is psychotic, that’s why.

Every time I try to do anything else important, however, the system just totally spazzes out on me. It took me nearly 20 minutes just to transfer a voice file from my daughter’s MP3 player, and 15 more to email it. And it was a very time-sensitive thing, so my computer probably cost me what was at stake.

I’m at my wits end with this. It’s frustrating me to the point that it’s adversely affecting my concentration, which I don’t have much of anyway. And there’s not a thing I can do about it right now.

Okay, I’m done ranting now. Must attempt to get back to work, if this piece of junk will let me get anything done.

I woke up this morning with a ridiculously sore throat. I’ve had a cold or sinus infection or something for a few days now, and it just keeps getting more annoying. At this point I’m finding myself getting dizzy with sudden movement, so I’m betting I’ll need antibiotics. We shall see if things don’t improve in a few days.

I did manage to get a report done this morning, and that was good. But my computer started acting up and it took me about thirty minutes just to get it into a zipped folder and send it to the client. Nervewracking stuff.

As if that weren’t enough, Pumpkin has had a pretty bad cough, especially in the mornings. I called the doctor’s office and they said to bring her in right after school. I called to tell the teacher I would be picking her up, but didn’t get her and my call wasn’t returned. So I decided just to make it a point to be there by the time school let out and go in after her.

Turns out it was a good thing I didn’t get ahold of the teacher. I got in my truck to leave to pick her up, and I noticed that it wasn’t driving quite right. At first I thought it was the shocks (which sorely need replacement), but I decided to check it out after driving a couple of miles. Good thing I did - one of my tires was nearly flat! It barely had enough air to keep the rim off the ground. So I just turned around and came back home, and rescheduled her appointment.

Considering all that, you might think I had a bad day. But for some reason, it didn’t faze me. Shortly after Hubby got home, he commented on me being in a good mood. I was rather taken aback at first, but then I realized that I was. Imagine that!

I still feel cruddy, and I haven’t gotten any work done today besides finishing that report. Yet somehow I’ve managed to not let it get me down. I wish I knew how, so I could do it every day.

I failed to mention this, but Pumpkin’s smallest puppy got run over last week. I miss the poor fellow something awful, and so does she. We both cried a lot of tears over him.

But a few days ago, we got a new furry friend. Her name is Precious, and she’s a one-year-old Pomeranian. And she is a very sweet, very beautiful girl. We have all fallen in love with her, including Hubby, who usually doesn’t like housedogs.

Precious was Pumpkin’s early birthday present, and she was tickled pink with her. But you know what they say about Poms- they get attached to one person in particular. And that person has already been established as me. She follows me everywhere I go, lays beside my chair while I work, and jumps in my lap every chance she gets. If I’m up stirring around, she’ll curl up with someone else who’s available, but other than that she is my shadow.

Precious is a very picky dog. She won’t touch the food we feed the others, so we’re going to have to find something else for her. There’s a new pet shop in town that I hear sells everything from hamsters to horse supplies, so maybe they’ll have a good selection of food to choose from. Maybe they can even suggest something for her.

We still talk about Tater Tots a lot. He was certainly a unique little creature, and no dog could ever take his place. But we’re very happy to have Precious as part of our family.

As you probably know if you’re a long-time reader, my husband has a lot of stomach troubles. He was unable to work for several months last year until he had his gall bladder removed. That helped get him in good enough shape to get back to work, but he still has problems. He has pretty bad acid reflux, among other things.

I tried to tell him he needed to change his diet, but he wouldn’t hear of it. He is the world’s pickiest eater, and most of the things he does like are packed with fat, cholesterol and salt. As much as he hates to take any more medicine than necessary, I think he would have rather gone on Phentermine than to change his diet.

But for the past few weeks, he has been complaining with frequent headaches and fatigue. The guys he works with told him it was probably high blood pressure, and sure enough, it has been up just about every time he has gone to the doctor lately. I told him that he needed to try to get it lowered on his own before they decided he needed medication for it, because everyone I know who takes blood pressure meds wishes they didn’t have to because of the side effects.

He begrudgingly agreed to let me fix him healthy meals for a week to see how he felt. I was leery that it would take longer than that to see a difference, but it didn’t. He has felt much better, and he agreed to continue eating healthy.

Now comes the hard part: I managed to find enough healthy stuff that he liked to keep him fed for one week, but I’m out of ideas. He will get burned out on the same old thing (just like he has been with all the stuff he has been eating over and over all his life). But I’m going to give it my best shot. Maybe now that I’m making a little headway, I can talk him into trying some new things, and retrying things he claims he doesn’t like.

I really need to have another yard sale. I could use the money for Pumpkin’s birthday, and we’ve just got a ton of stuff that we need to get rid of. But first I need to find a good place to have it.

The last yard sale I had was at Hubby’s grandpa’s house. I won’t be having one there again, because the turnout was terrible. It was pretty much a colossal waste of time. I think we made about $35 in two days. Most of the stuff I put in the yard sale is still packed up over there in his storage building, and I need to get it out. There’s a microwave, a bunch of girls’ clothing, a couple of dollhouses, and all sorts of other odds and ends.

Then there’s that whole mess in the garage. Hubby is now saying that he won’t be able to sell much of it. Well, it’s going to have to go somewhere. It’s seriously cluttering up our space for no good reason. And we need all the storage space we can get.

I’ve been trying to get Hubby to find me a good place to have a yard sale, but so far I’ve had no luck. He knows a lot more people around here than I do, and seeing how I would be doing most of the work, I figure it’s the least he could do. But from the looks of things, I’m going to have to break down and try to find a place myself if I want to have it. Oh joy.

I think Wal-Mart is part of a conspiracy to make my life more difficult than it needs to be. First, Hubby was going to lay me away a laptop a year or so ago. But when he went to Wally World to put it on layaway, he found out that they no longer did layaways. Then last week, I went there to see if I could find some nice fleece to make a poncho for Pumpkin for her birthday, and the whole damn craft department had disappeared!

They are doing some remodeling, and where the craft department was, there is now an empty fenced off area. I don’t know what they’re going to put there, but I’m betting it’s not craft stuff. How do they know to get rid of the exact stuff that I need?!?

I’m not going to have a lot of money to spend on Pumpkin this year, and I found instructions on how to make a simple but pretty fleece poncho without sewing. I thought it would be something that would be useful, but that she would still enjoy getting. Kind of like the acne scars cream I got for my birthday one year, only better.

I guess I’ll be checking out some of the small local stores to try and find the stuff I need to make that poncho. That’s something that I should be doing anyway. Have I mentioned how much I dislike Wal-Mart?

Today, I got up bright and early, jumped in the shower, did my hair up nice, and got all dressed up. Fancy dress, Manolo Blahniks, my finest jewelry, the whole bit. NOT!

Want to know how today really went at my house? Hubby got up at a somewhat respectable hour, Pumpkin slept till nearly lunch time, and I rolled out of bed sometime after that. We all stayed up rather late last night, so today we slept in.

We didn’t do much of anything all day. Just hung out together, played video games, and enjoyed each other’s company. For once Hubby wasn’t interested in leaving the house, and I didn’t argue. Normally I like to get out on the weekends when I’m not behind on my work, but I had my fill of running around last week. So I was content to just stay home with my family.

It wouldn’t have hurt me to have gotten some work done today, but oh well. I needed some family time pretty badly, and I’m glad I got it.

It’s raining today. Rain is something that we really need right now. But the mud I could definitely do without.

I guess it’s due to the change in weather, but my foot has been very sore since I got up this morning. It was run over by a car when I was 16, and it bothers me off and on. It was, however, tolerable. But thanks to the mud outside my back door, it’s rapidly approaching intolerable.

Here’s the story: Our new Walker puppy was barking her head off, so I figured she was hungry. So I decided that would be a good time to feed her and the other puppy. I slid on my Born sandals that my mom gave me and got the dog food ready. Then I opened up the back door and stepped out, only to step right in a ginormous gob of mud. My foot went sliding, and I had to twist around to keep from falling and dropping the dog food and water. By the time I caught my balance, I was at Anna’s dog house.

My foot and sandal covered in mud, I went to put the food and water in her bowl. That’s when I realized that she probably wasn’t barking out of hunger. She was standing out in her lot, soaked from head to tail. The crazy thing had obviously been standing out in the rain when she had a nice, dry house to lay in. WTH???

Anyway, as soon as I reached for her bowl, she jumped up on my arm, covering it with mud as well. Lovely. I held my temper, filled her bowl, and set it in her dog house. And instead of going in to eat it, she stayed outside and stuck her head in. I just don’t get that dog.

When I started back toward the house, the pain set in. I could barely stand to put any weight on my foot. But I pressed on, removing my sandal so as not to track up the floor too badly, and went through the house to the front porch to feed the little one. He wasn’t out there, and I had to holler for him a couple of times. I don’t know where he was, but wherever it was he was dry as a bone. At least he’s smart enough to seek shelter.

I limped back in the house, washed my arm and foot, and went back to the kitchen to examine my sandal. I rinsed it off in the tub, but you can still see where the mud was. I hope it will survive, because that’s one of the most comfortable (not to mention expensive) pairs of sandals I own.

It’s supposed to rain all week here. So I guess I have lots more muddy adventures to look forward to.

Maybe you’re wondering where I’ve been since I posted that I was feeling better. Or maybe you were under the mistaken impression that I had a life away from this computer. Anyway, in case you want to know, I started feeling cruddy again. I’m gonna live and all, but my body has been worn out and my mind in a fog.

I think I’m getting another sinus infection, or maybe it’s just a cold. But whatever it is, all I’ve felt like doing has been sleeping. True, that’s par for the course lately, but I had a couple of days when I wasn’t so tired. Then my head started getting all stuffy, and I was tired again.

Besides feeling rough, I’ve had a bunch of work piled up (par for the course again). I’m working on getting it caught up, and hopefully I’ll be able to squeeze in a couple more projects before the month is out. I need to have at least a decent month this time to keep us afloat.

Other than the same old same old, nothing has been going on to write home about. So that’s all for now.